A glide ride is a type of swing having a platform which is pivotally suspended from an elevated support by one or more pairs of parallel elongated hangers. The lower ends of the hangers of each pair are pivotally connected to the platform at spaced-apart locations thereon and the upper ends of the hangers of each pair are pivotally connected to the support. When the ride is swung back and forth relative to the support, the platform defines varying angles with its supporting hangers. The prior art is replete with examples of such swings, one old example being a conventional lawn swing. Other more recent examples are those marketed by Hedstrom Corporation, Bedford, Pennsylvania, under the trademarks STAR CRUISER and BUMP""N GLIDE.
While such swing rides have provided considerable enjoyment to children, it would be desirable to be able to provide an added measure of enjoyment to the occupants of such swings.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved swing ride for children.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a swing ride incorporating a toy which can be operated by the children in association with the ride.
Another object of the invention is to provide a swing ride incorporating a toy whose operation depends upon the swinging motion of the swing ride.
A further object of the invention is to provide a swing ride/toy combination which is relatively inexpensive to make in quantity.
Still another object of the invention is to provide the aforesaid combination which can be assembled relatively easily by the consumer.
Other objects will, in part, be obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the following detailed description, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.
We will describe the invention in the context of a glide ride-type of children""s swing. It should be understood however, that the invention is equally applicable to other swings whose swinging motion causes one component of the swing to move relative to another component thereof.
Basically a typical glide ride includes a horizontal platform which is supported above the ground by a pair of spaced-apart parallel hangers which are suspended from an overhead support such as the crossbar of a children""s swing set. The hangers are pivotally connected to the platform and to the support such that when the glide ride swings back and forth the platform remains substantially horizontal while the parallel hangers swing to various angles relative to the horizontal. In other words, the two angles defined by the platform and the two hangers vary with the swinging motion, and in fact, the two angles vary in a reciprocal manner.
In some cases, glide rides of this type have mirror image seat structures supported by the hangers above the platform which structures move with the hangers so that the included angle between each seat structure and the platform also changes with the swinging motion in a reciprocal manner.
In accordance with the present invention, a deformable chamber is captured between the platform and at least one of the seat structures. An outlet tube extends from the interior of that chamber to a toy mounted to the seat structure. Each deformable member is alternately extended and compressed by the relative motion of the seating structure and platform due to the swinging motion of the swing. Each time a deformable chamber is compressed, it delivers a fluid such as air or water via a connecting tube to energize the toy. The toy is activated by a rider moving a trigger associated with the toy.
In the present glide ride, the toy is a bubble generator to be described in more detail later. Suffice to say here that the bubble generator has a reservoir of a soapy liquid and a trigger which, when pulled, moves a ring from within the liquid to a location opposite to the distal end of the aforesaid tube from the deformable chamber. If the timing of the trigger pull coincides with the compression of the deformable chamber, a puff of air from the tube impinges upon the soap film spanning the ring causing one or more bubbles to be propelled into the air by the bubble generator.
Thus, each of the two riders on the swing has to coordinate the activation of his/her bubble generator with the motion of the swing in order to generate bubbles, thus adding considerable interest to the swing ride. For a glide ride with two bubble generators, only one generator at a time can produce bubbles, i.e. the one whose deformable chamber is under compression and only if the rider pulls the trigger of that generator.
As we shall see, the deformable members and the bubble generators are relatively simple manufactured articles which can be assembled to the associated swing ride quite easily without requiring any special tools. Therefore, the swing ride can be sold in a knock down condition and assembled easily by the consumer.